Putin propagandist was a major UBS customer. Holcim divests itself of companies in Uganda and Tanzania

Alexei Mordashov is a Russian oligarch. He was one of the first to be sanctioned in Switzerland after the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. His funds in Western accounts were also frozen. But first he was allowed to store it at UBSas the Tages-Anzeiger reports.

According to Forbes, Mordashov is a 21 billionaire and until 2022 co-owner of the Russian state television channel Channel One, known for spreading Kremlin propaganda.

A new leak from Cyprus now shows that Mordashov was not the only one with his Swiss bank account: A total of twenty Russian oligarchs who have now been sanctioned – all billionaires – had an account in Switzerland. At least they have since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in violation of international law and supported pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass. 17 of the oligarchs were already on a US government list in 2018. Most of them are sanctioned in Europe or the US, the others in Ukraine.

The data in the new leak comes from several Cypriot financial services providers. They were forwarded to Paper Trail Media in Germany, as well as to OCCRP, an investigative network, and the whistleblowing site DDoS. The Tamedia research desk had the opportunity to evaluate the data together with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. This week the study will be published under the name “Cyprus Confidential”.

What makes Swiss banks uneasy is the fact that many of their Russian customers are in Putin’s immediate vicinity. Alexei Mordashov was also a shareholder of Bank Rossiyathat plays a crucial role for the inner circle around the Russian president.

The case is also so explosive because in March 2019, 405,000 euros were transferred from the UBS account of one of Mordashov’s companies to an offshore company in the Caribbean. The next day, 400,000 euros should come from there transferred to the German journalist Hubert Seipel have been.

(rbu)